microsoft has been holding launch events in london, new york and los angeles to mark the arrival of the successor to the xbox 360. the launch comes a week as well after the u.s. launch of sony's playstation 4 and ahead of the critical holiday shopping season. the xbox one will cost around $500. that's $100 more than the ps4. microsoft shares so far this year are up 40% year to date. alex simmons is editor in chief at ign.com and joins us now. alex, good to see you. >> good morning. >> we sort of looked at this. for your extra hundred bucks for the xbox, what are you getting that you don't get from the playstation? >> so, the xbox one is being pitched as an entertainment hub rather than a traditional core gamer's machine. what it will do is connect to your cable box or skybox wr whatever you use to watch television, and basically, you can use the xbox one to control all of that. so, if you're watching a movie or playing a game and, you know, one of your friends skiypes you you say xbox pause, the game will pause and you can instantly chat with your friends before going straight back to t